“What?” Mo called from the bathroom. “It’s almost midnight.”

“I know, but she’s standing in the driveway. I saw her from the window upstairs.”

Mo came barreling out of the bathroom in her tank top and sweatpants.

Mom jumped up and pulled her taser from her purse. She pushed the button and a bolt of static electricity split the air with a loud crack. “I’m not playin’ games. Get in the closet.”

“Mom! I’m not going in the closet.”

I quickly turned and followed Mo down the stairs before Mom forced me to hide. Mo went to the window next to the front door and peered out. She reached for the doorknob.

“What the hell are you doing?” Mom asked as she came racing after us.

“I see somebody,” Mo said.

“You just gonna open the door?” Mom asked, peeking through the window next to her. “Investigating weird people in the driveway will get your ass sliced up, Angie. You’ve seen Us. Come on now.”

“She could be hurt or something,” Mo said. She unlocked the door and pulled it open a crack. “Can I help you?”

I didn’t hear an answer.

Mom sighed. “ ‘Can I help you?’ Really, Angie?” She brushed past Mo and wrenched open the door. She hit the button on her Taser again. “You’re on private property!” Mom shouted. “You ain’t never met nobody like me—” She stopped short.

“What?” I asked anxiously. “What is it?”

She stepped out onto the porch, her Taser crackling in the dark. “There’s nobody here.”

“What? No,” said Mo, rushing outside. “I saw somebody.” She quickly steered Mom back inside and closed the door, locking it. “Maybe we should call the police.”

Mom shook her head. “Do we want to do that? Do we need to? We see all kinds of weirdos back home.” She held up the Taser. “I can handle this.”

“We’re new,” Mo reminded her. “We have no idea what kind of weirdos they got up here. Could be nothing to worry about, could be everything.”

One of the handful of times I had actually seen Mo call the cops was right after she witnessed a car swerve off the road and hit a guy on the sidewalk. She was trying to get an ambulance, but the cops showed up and made everything so much worse than it needed to be. She avoided calling them unless it was absolutely necessary.

“She was there, and then she was gone,” Mom said. “She disappeared.”

“People don’t disappear, Thandie.” Mo sat on the couch, massaging her temple. “I saw somebody and so did Bri. Maybe she ran off when you came out of the house screaming like a banshee.”

“I wasn’t screaming,” Mom said. She looked at me. “Was I screaming?”